Family sewing

After all that time spent agonizing over the details of the 1930's inspired dress, it seemed to be time for some un-selfish sewing. 

My sister's son in six months old now and looking forward to his first winter. He has a coat, but his mother requested a kind of coat suit (two pieces) which he can wear on bicycle rides (riding in a child's seat on the handlebars of one of his parents' bikes, obviously. No idea how common that is anywhere else, but here in the Netherlands, parent cycle with small children like that all the time).

And she preferred the outfit to be made from all natural fabrics. Because of that, I'm using thin blue wool coating for the outer shell, un underlining of thick boiled wool knit and red cotton for the lining. And red cotton rib knit. 

A couple of weeks ago, I sent her some sketches to find out what kind of outfit she was looking for. She liked the hood, preferred a zipper closure, in the middle and thought my idea of using rib knit to keep the wind out would be good. 

At first, I planned on drafting the pattern myself but then I realized that all the instructions I have about drafting for children are for children who are old enough to stand up and not wear diapers anymore. And my nephew is obviously younger than that. (By the way, Dutch readers who want top sew for babies would do well to look up Pieke Stuvel's Baby & co. It's an easy-to-follow how-to book with patterns for babies. I gave it to my sister (who sews occasionally) as a birthday present just before little J was born and she has made good use of it)

So, I went to the library and borrowed the 2011 collection of Knippie magazine (the children's version of Dutch sewing magazine Knipmode). 

Unfortunately, there where no baby winter coats in it but I found some patterns I could use:

I traced these two for the basic shapes. Obviously I didn't bother with the pockets, decorative stitching etc. I don't see why anyone would want to fiddle with tiny patch pockets for a wearer who can't even use such pockets yet…

I made quite a lot of changes to the shirt. I went up a size in width for the ease needed in coat, replaced the button band with a zipper and made the bottom edge straight so I could at a rib knit band.

I'm working on it now. I really hope it will fit. Baby clothes really through off my sense of proportion. I just have no idea.

I'll show it to you when it's done but I probably won't be able to give the outfit to my nephew until the end of the month.